In Theaters: The Wedding Ringer

Better than expected

Film

Main Plot Points:

Doug Harris (Josh Gad) is a lovable but socially awkward groom-to-be with a problem: he has no best man. With less than two weeks to go until he marries the girl of his dreams (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), Doug is referred to Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), owner and CEO of Best Man, Inc., a company that provides flattering best men for socially challenged guys in need.

What ensues is a hilarious wedding charade as they try to pull off the big con, and an unexpected budding bromance between Doug and his fake best man Jimmy.

What We Thought:

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of The Wedding Ringer. I like Josh Gad well enough, but he‘s usually more a supporting character than romantic lead. I love Kevin Hart’s stand up, but can’t say I’ve loved his movies. Nothing about the film felt all that original either.

Maybe it’s because of those expectations that I overall enjoyed the film. I found myself laughing more than not and I’m glad I ended up seeing it.

There were some issues going into the movie that did play out better than expected as well. No offense to Josh, but the idea of him landing Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting is insane. That would be like me landing her, not going to happen, but the film did explain how and I can respect that.

As for the film’s two stars, well, they are both good. Gad captures that lovable loser pretty well, almost too well. You understand why he doesn’t have many friends. Hart is loud and in your face a lot, but also has a lot of heart and his character goes through a surprising arch that you wouldn‘t expect in a film like this. Together, they balance each other out quite well actually.

Besides the two leads, the supporting cast is good too. I didn’t realize Jorge Garcia was in the movie till he appeared. He’s on the movie poster, but I didn’t see it. He played Hurley on Lost and there’s a great airplane joke in there. Jeffrey Ross makes an appearance. As does Whitney Cummings. Plus the other actors playing the “groomsmen” all are funny and get laughs. As does the future father-in-law and his friends.

Speaking of the supporting cast, how is Olivia Thirlby not a bigger name? She was great in the much underrated Dredd and she could have easily been the love interest in this. She’s adorable and needs more work!

I think that’s one of the issues I had with the film. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting really was unnecessary. The film is about Gad and Hart and someone who’s on a hit TV show really seemed wasted in the role. There are good chunks of time that she’s nowhere in the film and because I find her funny, she either needed a bigger presence in the movie or just not been used at all.

Overall, I liked The Wedding Ringer. If you’ve seen Hitch, The Wedding Singer or Wedding Crashers, you’ve pretty much seen this, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t watch it again. I wouldn’t watch it again anytime soon, but a year from now when it’s been on DVD for a while I’d watch it again. It has one really “gross out” scene, but it also has genuine laughs and characters you can relate to.